WebBesides children and grandchildren, several other longtime aides and friends also lived in the White House during the Roosevelt years. I am not talking about giving up a career to stay home and raise children, or nursing an aging parent, or other instances of worthy self-sacrifice. Their correspondence is filled with romantic expressions and longing, though whether they had a physical relationship isn't known for sure; at least in regards to her marriage, Eleanor maintained that shared connection and common interest trumped lusty urges. I was more intrigued than ever. Missy LeHand, Roosevelts longtime aide. Just as I was discovering a darker side of ERs character, so a more melancholy aspect of FDRs life began to emerge. The testimony of others, which ranged from the banal to the hyperbolic, affords few clues to her character. I never wish to hear money, jewels, or labels mentioned again. In 1917, on an official trip to Haiti, FDRs behavior to his hosts was as unfailingly courteous as his enjoyment of his colleagues racist jokes was hearty. A nationwide gene-purity movement promoted methods that eventually were adopted by the Third Reich. Since a thorough medical exam a year before, he had received increasingly more intensive care and concern from a young recently recruited private physician. She was, according to Jean Edward Smith's "FDR," the president's constant companion for 21 years, his attendant on excursions where Eleanor was not present, and the only one to refer to him with the pet name "F.D." [5] According to historians Joseph Persico and Hazel Rowley, the affair between Mercer and Franklin likely began in 1916, when Eleanor and the children were vacationing at Campobello Island to avoid the summer heat, while Franklin remained in Washington, D.C.[6][7] In 1917, Franklin often included Mercer in his summer yachting parties, which Eleanor usually declined to attend. WebMore About a Remarkable Donation. A formidable, multitalented multitasker.. Their marriage may have been a failure, but their partnership was a triumph. The better I got to know the woman whom I had been raised to revere, the more I marveled at her achievements and squirmed in her presence. FDR flattered and flirted with them all, but it was Lucy for whom he had almost left his wife before he had polio, and Lucy whom the White House operators were instructed to put through no matter when she called, and Lucy whom he was with when he succumbed to a cerebral hemorrhage on that clement April afternoon in Warm Springs. When I looked at their early prejudices, I saw signposts indicating how far they had traveled. Where Franklin believed that the war effort superseded civil liberties, Eleanor argued that wartime was when belief in the Bill of Rights most counted. But the woman who is perhaps least remembered but most important was Marguerite Missy LeHand, his personal secretary and closest confidant for more than 20 years. "No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. He loved to gather a group around him while he mixed cocktails, told stories, and traded gossip and jokes. After 65 years, the archives of FDRs personal secretary are now open to the public, The world-shaping relationship between these two giants got off to a rocky start. FDR's Secretary of Labor the first female Cabinet member also helpedcreatethe minimum wage, 40-hour work week, and first tough child labor laws. I wrote all this in the newspaper. LeHand loved the president dearly, and Franklin was very fond of her. The context of Eleanor's attitude is worth bearing in mind. Even during the terrible years when he was battling to walk again, he delighted in company. Joseph Lash was a faithful intimate during ERs life and an excellent friend in the books he wrote about her after her death. He hated to be alone. As a result, practically everyone left the presidential presence convinced his own argument had won the day. [8], In June 1917, Mercer quit or was fired from her job with Eleanor and enlisted in the US Navy, which was then mobilizing for World War I. After all the experts and advisers have rung in, one man must make the decision to cut the meager pensions of World War I veterans, to give Americans numbers to ensure their social security, to send abroad precious ships and arms that may soon be needed at home. She came to work for FDR as his private secretary at age 23 and stayed for more than 20 years. That was a given. Eleanor discovered the affair in in 1918 when she found love letters in her husband's suitcase. [20] Winthrop Rutherfurd had proposed to socialite Consuelo Vanderbilt (18771964) in 1896, only to see her social-climbing mother instead force her into marriage with Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough (18711934) (cousin to later British prime minister Winston Churchill). The year 1924 also introduced FDR to Warm Spring Georgia, where he would focus his efforts on findingan effective cure for polio and provide a world class rehabilitation clinic for its victims. FDR's love nest in the park: How president took FIVE The Real History of Atlantic Crossing: Episodes Guide - PBS It begins, ER: her garlic pills (Sis could smell them on her breath).. And biographer Hazel Rowley has speculated (via Roll Call) that Mercer's devout Catholic faith may have prevented a physical relationship. ' He also had a simple and unshakable faith in God. She was a devoted and successful mother to five stepchildren and one biological daughter, all of whom adored her. The void left by my father, who died shortly after the war, made the towering national patriarch even more irresistible. The next four years in Albany provided FDR with a powerful platform to re-establish his national profile. [25][26], Despite Roosevelt's promise to Eleanor, he kept in contact with Lucy Rutherfurd after her marriage, corresponding with her by letter throughout the 1920s. Who was this woman who attracted the greatest man of her time and held him until he died, not in her arms, as gossip still has it, but close enough? FDR fled tears. During the early days of their marriage, ER wrote her mother-in-law that the Jew party at Bernard Baruchs was appalling. Mercer's friendship with Franklin Roosevelt was portrayed in the well-regarded TV mini-series Eleanor and Franklin, with Mercer portrayed by actress Linda Kelsey in the 1976 telecast, based on the best-selling biography of the same name by Eleanor's personal friend Joseph P. Lash, published in 1971. Per Hazel Rowley's "Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage," the four-time first lady went so far as to tell her grown daughter, Anna Roosevelt Halsted, that sex was "an ordeal to be borne.". This was in part a matter of logistics; some of these trips were to do with Franklin's rehabilitation from polio, while Eleanor had the family to look after. More than this, she referred to them as her own. According toHistory Today, Eleanor came to the marriage with little to no education in sex. During the four years I spent with Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, I never stopped wondering at the imaginations of those two children of privilege who came to intuit hardship they had never endured. Admirers compared her voice to velvet and swore her smile was radiant. After the election, Eleanor asked Missy to come to her home in Hyde Park and help finish up the correspondence. The experience transformed him. Missy, as FDRs children nicknamed her, In June 1942, two squads of saboteursall U.S. residents who returned to Germany to serve the Reichwere dropped by U-boat on beaches in New York and Florida, respectively. The affair lasted two years, with one of his friends posing as Mercer's escort. One Roosevelt son called her a lady to her fingertips. FDRs mother wrote to her daughter-in-law, Miss Mercer is here, she is so sweet and attractive and adores you, Eleanor. I could not believe FDR had sacrificed the complicated, redoubtable, and, in her youth, lovely ER for this saccharine Victorian clich. The Gatekeeper by Kathryn Smith | Goodreads [citation needed], Following Roosevelt's death, his administration concealed from the press the fact that Rutherfurd had been present during his death, fearing the scandal that would ensue. In 2017, Barbara Collins Jacques donated to the FDR FDR and Marshall had to build a fighting force able to take on the Nazis, against the wishes of many in Congress. She once bought out an entire farm stand so the woman running it could close for the day. In addition, the relationship was covered in an episode of The President's documentaries for the PBS American Experience series on American history, as well as in the 2014 PBS miniseries The Roosevelts, directed by noted documentary film-maker Ken Burns, with an accompanying companion pictorial book by Geoffrey Perrett. Even Earl Miller, the slippery, selfaggrandizing New York State trooper who started as her bodyguard, was unstinting in his devotion. Mercer stayed in FDR's life until his death in 1945, and she was with him when he took his last breaths, even though she eventually married another man. By Hayley Peterson Profiles in History: Missy LeHand: FDRs Right Hand The story of Chicago in the nineteenth century is the story of the making of America, Donald L. Miller says. At the time of their marriage, Eleanor's uncle Theodore Roosevelt joked that "there's nothing like keeping the name in the family." [27] Historian/author Persico speculates that these letters may have been the cause of the 1927 nervous breakdown of Roosevelt's long-time unmarried first secretary Marguerite "Missy" LeHand (18981944), as LeHand was also reputedly in love with Roosevelt and no medical cause for her breakdown was found. The film, opening December 7, stars Bill Murray as Roosevelt and Laura Linney as Miss Suckley. Her office also had a door leading to the garden, allowing unannounced visitors direct access to FDR when he didnt want their names showing up on the official White House registry. Her relationship with FDR transcended her role as his secretary. Missys very capable protg Grace Tully took over the administrative responsibilities, but her personal relationship with FDR was not the same as Missys. The Sad Truth About Franklin And Eleanor Roosevelt's Marriage, Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage. Though Ragni stgaard mentions summer visits from the President in her letters to Nikolai, FDR was at Hyde Park when the U-boat surfaced, says Kalllestein. She traveled with them and paid their bills, acted as hostess when Eleanor was away, provided advice on personnel, personal and political matters, and kept the White House secretarial staff operating at a remarkably high level of effectiveness under constant stress. To license content, please contact licenses [at] americanheritage.com. Fala was a gift from Margaret Suckley and FDR took the dog with him everywhere, Gifts: Roosevelt left his secretary, Missy LeHand, half of his $3 million estate, Til' death do us part: A handful of Roosevelt's alleged mistresses were with him when he died, 17:41 25 Nov 2012, updated 13:35 18 Sep 2014, Marguerite 'Missy' LaHand was FDR's secretary for more than 20 years, Legendary life revealed: Stunning behind the scenes pictures show Elizabeth Taylor as child star, blushing bride and Hollywood icon, 'I hit her in the face with the spare ribs': Frank Sinatra's loyal valet tells how he carried out singer's dirty work and broke up with lovers for the star, Franklin D. Roosevelt allegedly carried on affairs with at least five women, Lucy Mercer was Eleanor Roosevelt's social secretary, Margaret 'Daisy' Suckley was Roosevelt's sixth cousin and close confidant, Princess Martha of Sweden was forced to flee Scandinavia in 1941, Dorothy Schiff was a former publisher of the New York Post. LeHand, Marguerite, 1896-1944 - Library of Congress It rotted in the basement. The current series running on PBSs Masterpiece, Atlantic Crossing, a Norwegian public television Marguerite LeHand, Personal Secretary to President [37][38] Finding Shoumatoff's unfinished preliminary watercolor among Franklin's possessions some time later however, she mailed it to Rutherfurd, to which Rutherfurd responded with a warm letter of thanks and condolences. He always enjoyed other peoples discomfort, Averell Harriman observed. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelts evolving relationship with African Americans challenged her beliefs about herselfand the world she had been raised in. . But in 1941 Missys health problems finally caught up with her, as they would with FDR four years later. I pitied Eleanor. I shared her frustration when FDR declined to make an antilynching law a top priority, and refused to open the door to the Jewish victims of Hitlers persecutions, but wasnt she sufficiently astute to appreciate the adage that to be a great statesman, one must first be a good politician? The Bank Holiday excitement is a bit too much for some! It was during their years in Albany that Missy first came to the attention of the roving pack of reporters who covered FDR. Opinion | FDRs private secretary who served also as his Most historians date Lucy Mercers first visit to the White House, under her Secret Service code name of Mrs. Johnson, to August 1941. Her parents squandered a fortune with stunning panache, and one morning she and her sister awakened to find they were stranded penniless at their convent school in Austria. The letters of Lorena Hickok, the AP reporter who became a government worker when her closeness to the White House compromised her professional objectivity, reveal a burning, and for a while reciprocated, passion for ER. The Sad Truth About Franklin And Eleanor Roosevelt's Her descendants speak of the insouciance with which she met early hardship. While J. Edgar Hoovers FBI claimed credit for their quick arrests, the saboteurs plot was actually foiled from within: The groups leader, 39-year-old George Dasch (2nd from lower right in photo), called the FBI to volunteer their plans. James realized even then what a cruel thing that was to say, but even Eleanor felt that the children were more Sara's than hers. Historians have also debated whether, as a Roman Catholic, Mercer would have been willing to marry a divorced man. Grace Tully Forward with Roosevelt Rumors of their affair spread like wildfire, as she always conveniently visited the White House and Hyde Park when Eleanor was out of town. (If FDR had not fallen in love with Lucy Mercer, ER might never have become a force for peace and social justice. And what was the future First Lady who would champion female equality doing opposing woman suffrage? Readmore about the magazine >>, The magazine was forced to suspend print publication in 2013, but a group of volunteers saved the archives and relaunched it in digital form in 2017. And while she clearly had her favorites, she was widely respected for her fairness and devotion to the presidents needs. She admitted later in life that "It did not come naturally to me to understand little children or to enjoy them." Find out about new shows, get updates on your favorite dramas and mysteries, enjoy exclusive content and more! In her book The Gatekeeper,Kathryn Smith describes Missys role this way: Missy was the Swiss Army Knife of the White House. the grandniece of Marguerite A. During World War II, this couple of 40 years sometimes couldn't manage a conversation except through secretaries. He was married to Eleanor. The White House staff grew quickly as the work load of the First 100 Days and the ever growing volume of correspondence demanded attention. The Presidents official schedule for June 5, 1941, reads in part: "1130: To Marguerite A. LeHands apartment, "1555-1740: Returned from Office to Study White House accompanied by Mrs. Johnson, "1740: To Marguerite A. LeHands apartment. According to Joseph Alsop, a Roosevelt cousin and political columnist, ER had a downright ghastly childhood and youth, while FDR had an immensely happy childhood and a youth altogether comfortable and if anything overprotected. Yet after more than 10 years of marriage to a wife whom he would always respect and revere, he broke the rules of God and man and fell in love with another woman. Mrs. Nesbitt told him it was unavailable, though when his secretaries chipped in to buy some, they managed to find it in the local stores. FDR was convinced he had found a new form of therapy. He was so engrossed in his work and campaigns that he hadn't the time to spare, and he believed not unusually for his time that it was the job of the mother to raise the children, or at least to hire a nanny to handle them. She already resented having the timeline and circumstances of their engagement dictated by her future mother-in-law; with a lengthy cruise separating them, she wondered if Franklin might not return her affections afterwards. Four years ago, when reports of presidential misbehavior convulsed the country, I found myself wanting to tell the story of three people who comported themselves with dignity and grace in the face of imminent heartbreak and of an era that allowed them to. Just in the late 1920s, Hazel Rowley (via NPR) documents 116 weeks that Franklin was gone. WebBeing obsessed with all things Roosevelt, I was thrilled to see a biography about Marguerite Missy LeHand, President Franklin D. Roosevelts personal secretary.
Deegan Chapel Obituaries,
Lubbock High School Coaching Staff,
Articles F